{"id":45956,"date":"2015-01-07T15:23:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T21:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/?p=45956"},"modified":"2015-01-10T00:37:08","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T06:37:08","slug":"christmas-eve-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/07\/christmas-eve-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We had a total blast on Christmas Eve this year!  The girls got in their Christmas pajamas right after naps and couldn\u2019t wait for the evening to unfold!<\/p>\n

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I told the girls to look for Santa, so they went to the window and held hands.  It was the sweetest thing!  They didn\u2019t know he really was going to come until he got here!  We then took our traditional stair step picture, like we do before anything special.  I wonder when they\u2019ll all the be same height.  Can we just freeze time?  These ages are amazing!  No toddlers (well, almost), no teenagers, our house is rockin\u2019!  <\/p>\n

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Poppa and Rara got here just in time for our surprise guest to arrive!<\/p>\n

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I asked them one more time to go check and see if Santa is here, and to their amazement, he actually was!!!  <\/p>\n

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Reading Christmas stories was so very special!<\/p>\n

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Rose\u2019s turn to tell Santa a secret.  We have two very special memories of Rose from tonight.  After story time, Rose showed Santa a little tiny jingle bell that she had (which is around her neck in this picture), and said, \u201cWatch this!\u201d and rang it as loudly as she could.  Then Santa reached into his bag and pulled out 3 bells quadruple in size, and said, \u201cWatch this!\u201d and shook his!  They were having so much fun playing together!  Then Santa asked Rose what she wanted for Christmas.  I kid you not, Rose returned his question with a question, \u201cWhat do you have?\u201d  We were cracking up!  Rose is a bag of tricks.  You never know what\u2019s going to come out of her mouth, but it\u2019s always something so great!<\/p>\n

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Up next was Anna Kate.  She is the cutest little 5 year old I could think up!  She got in his lap and said hi and then started to climb down.  I think she didn\u2019t want to take up his time or something.  I\u2019m not quite sure.  Maybe she was a little bashful.  Whatever the case, he said, \u201cNot so fast!  Where are you going?\u201d  She hopped back up and could not stop giggling.  She would never ask for extra attention, but she basks in it.  She is probably the opposite of most middle children.  She was the happiest little baby, and aside from normal kid phases, she is absolutely amazing! <\/p>\n

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I love Anna Kate\u2019s hands holding Santa\u2019s thumb, so precious and sweet!  We are so honored to have Santa Chuck Lee, the only real Santa as the girls like to tout, as our family friend.  He is truly our friend and helps raise my spirits when the going gets tough.  We care about each other and that makes our visits so very special!<\/p>\n

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Noelle saw Rose telling secrets with Santa, and she had a silly secret too!  Hers was, \u201cI like broccoli!\u201d  Santa whispered back to her that he liked it too!  Noelle is so little and so big!  It makes me so very happy and sad!  She\u2019s growing up, and I\u2019m trying to freeze all of our moments together.  She\u2019s such a great kid, and I\u2019m so proud of her!<\/p>\n

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She really cracked herself up!  She is thankful Santa Chuck has been there for her during her childhood.  We will treasure our memories together forever and ever!  <\/p>\n

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Another amazing Christmas memory was hearing Santa recite \u2018Twas the Night Before Christmas<\/em> from memory.  He spins the tale with drama and life!  It\u2019s so much fun to hear!<\/p>\n

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When Santa left the room for a second, someone saw his coat hanging on his chair.  She could not help herself!  It looked too fancy not to try on!  Wouldn\u2019t you know Noelle would be very interested in Santa\u2019s wardrobe.  That made her night!  She kept twirling and spinning around.  After Santa was off to the busiest night of his year, we got busy making his gingerbread cookies!<\/p>\n

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Rara helped the girls get started! <\/p>\n

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Mike made our traditional homemade pizza from scratch.  He is such a great chef!  He could seriously cook for a living if he wanted to.  I\u2019m so proud of my man!<\/p>\n

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After dinner, we opened a few special presents the girls had worked on this year!  Mike got a little trophy from Anna Kate that said, \u201c#1 Dad.\u201d  She was so proud to give her family members presents this year.  <\/p>\n

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Poppa got a fishing magnet, and Anna Kate and Rose got model magic from their sweet Aunt Joe! <\/p>\n

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Rose got Uni the Unicorn<\/em> book recommended by Aunt Sharon from her Daddy this year!  She is so crazy about it, and we have probably read it one hundred times already.  It softened the blow of not getting a real live unicorn in the back yard for Christmas, God love her!<\/p>\n

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Noelle gave Mike a keychain and socks, which he really needed, and I gave Mom a crochet trivet I made for her this fall with Mrs. Rose, our lively crochet teacher and friend.  It sure was a labor of love, but I finished it just in time.  That project went with me to lots of soccer and cheer practices this fall!  She loved it, and I was so happy to have kept a secret from her!<\/p>\n

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Last but not least, it was time to sprinkle reindeer food in the yard to help guide them to our house.  Little did we know at the time, Mike and I would be up till the wee hours of night helping Santa assemble all of the Pond girls\u2019 toys.  Next year (and the year after that and the year after that), we\u2019re buying technology or something that doesn\u2019t need to be built, but we are so happy we paid it forward tonight for loads of fun for years to come!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  We had a total blast on Christmas Eve this year!  The girls got in their Christmas pajamas right after naps and couldn\u2019t wait for the evening to unfold!   I told the girls to look for Santa, so they went to the window and held hands.  It was the sweetest thing!  They didn\u2019t know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45997,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45956\/revisions\/45997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}